OHM NOM NOMhttps://ohmnomnom.wordpress.com
our search for nirvana... or just a really good mealThu, 14 Dec 2017 02:29:01 +0000enhourly1http://wordpress.com/https://s2.wp.com/i/buttonw-com.pngOHM NOM NOMhttps://ohmnomnom.wordpress.com
Russian Vinaigrette Saladhttps://ohmnomnom.wordpress.com/2013/02/10/russian-vinaigrette-salad/
https://ohmnomnom.wordpress.com/2013/02/10/russian-vinaigrette-salad/#respondSun, 10 Feb 2013 09:58:23 +0000http://ohmnomnom.wordpress.com/?p=331]]>Tonight I had some free time and I thought I’d take the opportunity to make a Russian Vinaigrette Salad. It’s like the Russian version of a potato salad. But with beets. I figured this would be a quick and easy thing to make – I mean… how long could it take to boil a bunch of vegetables, dice them up and mix them together…. right? In the end I spent about three and a half hours on it, so lesson learned.

Of course, like many Russian dishes, this starts with potatoes and carrots. The idea is to boil them, peel them, cube them and eventually mix them together with the rest of the ingredients. We only had 4 carrots so although I thought that might not be enough, I went with what I had.

This is also when I realized that I don’t really know what the ratios of ingredients should be. The thing is, I just had one beet. One huge beet. Easily the size of two regular beets. So it seemed like I had a lot of beet to work with, but not a lot of carrot. I did have a whole bag of potatoes, so I kind of had to guess at how many potatoes go with a lot of beet and not a lot of carrot. I guessed four.

Anyway, so the other thing is that I had never boiled beets before and didn’t really know how long it takes. But given that this was a huge beet, it was pretty certain that it would take much longer to cook than the other stuff. So in it went.

I don’t know if you can tell how huge this beet is from this photo. It’s hard to show the scale of it. But this is the largest pot we have and I couldn’t even cover the beet with water. I figured I would have to turn it several times throughout the process so that it cooks all the way through and on all sides. I let it boil for 20 minutes before letting its friends into the pool.

After about 20 minutes I added the carrots and potatoes. I had another pot ready in case they didn’t fit, but they did. It’s a pretty large pot. This was also a good opportunity to turn the beet and let the top part get submerged in the water for a while. You could see the skin is starting to peel, which to me was a good sign because I wasn’t sure this thing was actually going to cook. Beets are pretty dense. Another cool thing was that the water had turned beet colored. I thought that maybe the potatoes and carrots would acquire some of that sweet beet taste and color while they were boiling in there. They didn’t, though.

While that stuff boiled, I started getting the other things ready. I diced up an onion and got out some peas. We hardly had any peas and I was pretty sure it wouldn’t be enough. But again, I didn’t know what the ratios were supposed to be like anyway and it’s not like I was going to go to the store for a few more peas. Meanwhile, the onion seemed like a bit too much. I ended up being right about that and only used about a third of it.

After about 10 minutes, the carrots and potatoes still seemed a bit hard so I left them in there for a while longer. This salad is all about soft cubes of stuff. We’re not really going for crispy carrots. They have to be soft, but not so soft that they just turn to mush, obviously. I’m not especially experienced with boiling carrots and potatoes and getting the timing just right so that they’re at the perfect balance of softness and not mushiness. But I poked them and they seemed hard so that was that.

While I was washing and boiling and dicing and poking and all that, Twixie was getting suspicious. I don’t think she had ever even seen a beet and this was an intimidating one. Plus, I’m rarely seen cooking and dicing at one in the morning so who knows what she was thinking was going on.

Eventually the carrots and potatoes were cooked and I took them out. I stuck the beet with a knife and it was still hard inside so I left it in there for yet longer. I was starting to think this thing was too dense and would never get cooked. Or the outside would turn to mush before the inside is ready. But what could I do? I figured I’d leave it in for a while longer and if the middle still hadn’t cooked I would just cut around it. It was getting late and I didn’t have time to wait around for this giant beet to do its thing.

Meanwhile, it was time to dice up the carrots and potatoes. I had read that they should cool for at least 2 hours or even be left overnight before dicing. But who has time for that, right? I got to it right away.

This turned out to be kind of a mistake because if you’ve ever tried peeling a warm, soft carrot, you know what I’m talking about. I put the rest of them in the freezer to cool off while I worked on the first carrot. It wasn’t pretty but I wasn’t about to wait another two hours while these guys got themselves ready to get peeled.

I got them done one by one, taking each next one out only when I was ready for it. Peeling the carrots definitely got easier as they cooled off more. The potatoes, it turned out, were much easier – the skin pretty much peeled off on its own when I pulled on it. Sometime along the way I decided to finally get the beet out of the water before the outer part of it turns to mush. I put it in a bowl and threw it in the freezer too while I diced the other stuff.

Here they are, all diced up and waiting to be assaulted with beets. The potatoes actually got kind of mushy when I was chopping them and I thought that maybe I had overcooked them. But really I probably just didn’t let them cool enough. I needed them to stay cube shaped instead of getting all mashed potatoey and although I initially thought that might not happen, it more or less worked out. Also it seemed like I had too much potato, so I only used three out of the four.

The only thing left now is the beet. It peeled fairly easily. Like the potatoes, the skin was ready to go. It didn’t peel off as cleanly as the potatoes, but some knife scraping did the trick. Here it is, exposed and bulging with juice.

Well as you can guess I diced that thing up pretty good and added it to the other diced things. It wasn’t as messy as I had thought it would be. Gotta be careful with beet juice because it doesn’t wash off fabric easily. I ended up cutting the sides off so that the core is in a cube shape. Just in case the core wasn’t cooked thoroughly enough. I wanted to see the color inside and also I wasn’t sure if this was going to be too much beet for the other ingredients. I used up more of it than I expected and the salad started shaping up to be much bigger than I had thought it would be.

Doesn’t that look nice? The beet really adds some good color to the whole thing.

The end was finally in sight. I added the onions, the peas, some olive oil, salt and pepper. Mixed it all around and voila, the salad was complete! I was glad to finally be done with it because it took a couple hours longer than I had planned and I was hoping to be in bed by that time.

But I had to do a quick taste test, right? Right. So I did. And it tasted… kind of bland. I started adding a little more salt when I realized… I had forgotten the key ingredient! The Vinaigrette Salad is just not complete without dill pickles. I got some out, chopped them up, mixed it all around and finally it was ready.

With all the mixing around, the potatoes and onions take on the beet’s color. In the end it all looks like varying shades of red and pink but with the occasional green of the peas and pickles. This was finally a familiar sight – this is what this salad is supposed to look and taste like. Success!

So there ya go – Russian Vinaigrette Salad.

-a

]]>https://ohmnomnom.wordpress.com/2013/02/10/russian-vinaigrette-salad/feed/0cityinwhich143potatoes and carrotsbeet boilingvegetables boilingpeastwixiepotatoes carrots dicedgiant beetpotatoes carrots beets dicedRussian vinaigrette saladCelebratory Steakshttps://ohmnomnom.wordpress.com/2012/07/28/celebratory-steaks/
https://ohmnomnom.wordpress.com/2012/07/28/celebratory-steaks/#respondSat, 28 Jul 2012 17:08:51 +0000http://ohmnomnom.wordpress.com/?p=322]]>The other day we got some really good news and there was cause for celebration. Not one to be caught unprepared, I had a couple of 18 oz T-Bone steaks at the ready, just waiting for an occasion.

These were a bit thicker than my usual steaks, so I took a slightly different approach to cooking them. First, salt & pepper.

Mmm, thick and juicy. Next, heat some oil on a very hot pan and throw the steak on (be careful that the hot oil doesn’t splatter and burn your arm all over – ouch!)

A few minutes on each side.

Since these were a bit thicker, I put them in the oven at 450F for a few minutes. The result…

These came out medium, a bit more done than I wanted. Next time, I’ll reduce the cooking times to get medium rare. Still, they were pretty tasty – just what the doctor ordered

-a

]]>https://ohmnomnom.wordpress.com/2012/07/28/celebratory-steaks/feed/0cityinwhich143steak-1steak-2steak-3steak-4Big & little’shttps://ohmnomnom.wordpress.com/2011/10/24/big-littles/
https://ohmnomnom.wordpress.com/2011/10/24/big-littles/#respondMon, 24 Oct 2011 06:44:52 +0000http://ohmnomnom.wordpress.com/2011/10/24/big-littles/]]>Alex & I ventured to Big & Little’s – a neighborhood seafood shack smack in the middle of the Midwest! This place really brought back some of that divey southern feel from New Orleans. We shared a soft shell crab po’ boy and a samurai whitefish taco.

Both were delicious. Deep fried seafood perfection. Who dat!

]]>https://ohmnomnom.wordpress.com/2011/10/24/big-littles/feed/0cityinwhich143imageimageSlow and steady wins the racehttps://ohmnomnom.wordpress.com/2011/09/24/slow-and-steady-wins-the-race/
https://ohmnomnom.wordpress.com/2011/09/24/slow-and-steady-wins-the-race/#commentsSun, 25 Sep 2011 03:36:01 +0000http://ohmnomnom.wordpress.com/?p=302]]>Hello blog! It’s been a long time since we’ve nom-ed over here at ohmnomnom hasn’t it? Thankfully for you, I was recently assigned a butt-load of organic chemistry problems to do, and that obviously left me with no other option… I had to dust off this blog and blather on about what I cooked today. Procrastination! Yay!!

But really, what I mean to say is that this yummy meal was so good that I couldn’t go without documenting it. It’s a simple slow cooker ribs recipe. I came up with the darn thing myself! I think its one of the few times that I’ve cooked with no recipe to fall back on. And it turned out great! Here we go:

Ribs!

So here’s what I did (and you can too!):

– go to Peoria Packing for dirt cheap pork ribs

– round up whatever looks good in the spice cabinet (ie. chili powder, paprika, cumin, even cinnamon or allspice would be good here… and don’t forget the salt!) and rub it into the meat.

– broil the ribs, 5 mins per side, to get a good crust – you want to get some caramelization here… look up the Maillard rxn and remember: you can try to run from chemistry… but it will eventually find you!

– dump the ribs into the slow cooker along with about 1 cup of tasty liquid – think BBQ sauce, chipotles in adobo, honey, apple cider vinegar for acidity

Can we think of other adjectives for "falling of the bone" and "tender"...?

It turned out WONDERFULLY. Falling-off-the-bone tender (sigh, overused foodie terms much?). I drained the liquid and reduced it for a delish BBQ dipping sauce. Meanwhile, Alex whipped up a salad while blasting his dubstep salad making mix. It’s a very energetic mix – perfect for chopping. And then we feasted like kings!

– jess

(don’t worry, orgo problems were eventually done later that night… )

]]>https://ohmnomnom.wordpress.com/2011/09/24/slow-and-steady-wins-the-race/feed/1cityinwhich143IMG_0002IMG_0003NOLA Day 4: All good things…https://ohmnomnom.wordpress.com/2011/05/19/nola-day-4-all-good-things/
https://ohmnomnom.wordpress.com/2011/05/19/nola-day-4-all-good-things/#respondFri, 20 May 2011 00:27:06 +0000http://ohmnomnom.wordpress.com/?p=277]]>All good things must come to an end. So the saying goes, right? But, I say, why not taint the good with a little… bad? You can’t have a trip to N’awlins without a bit of the risque:

tsk tsk!

Okay, lets rewind a bit here. We had woken up with a hangover after a night of drinking and our subsequent attack on a few spicy crustaceans. These buggers were feisty! We woke up with scratches and cuts the next day (of course, not due to our drunken sloppiness and the fact that we ignored our waitress’ suggestions on how to open our crusty friends)

spicy crab boil

Here is Phil, totally dominating:

phil & crab

After a bleary morning, we trekked over to the WWII museum. It was definitely worth it! We spent the next few hours slowly wandering the halls, learning about the war in great detail. I especially loved the play by plays of the major battles, including D-Day. I also liked the propaganda posters, from both sides of the war. It was a really neat trip! Do check it out, if you’re around… But anyways, back to what you’ve come here for… the food!

We stopped at Cochon Butcher, an offshoot of the Cochon resto we went to the night before. This was a classy sandwich shop with all meats prepared in house. We shared a cuban sandwich with cochon au lait (a special way of cooking pork). It was divine. We washed it down with some local brews.

At night, we finally made our way to Mr. B’s Bistro, a NOLA must. This was probably my most anticipated meal – the BBQ shrimp! Which, in fact, are not barbecued at all. Instead the shrimp (heads and tails on, please!) are slowly cooked and simmered in a buttery rich and spicy sauce, giving it a rich smokey hue…. It was unbelievable. Served with a chunk of crusty french bread to sop up the liquid gold!

BBQ shrimp in liquid gold

Which brings us to night time in New Orleans… We met up with the lovely Shan&Brent to go out drinking on bourbon street. A few Hurricanes, HUGE-ASS-BEERS-TO-GO and 4 Lokos later, and you have the picture at the start of the post. Alex tells me that the shot was not tasty. I guess shot taking under extreme duress and awkwardness does not make liquer taste any better…

Can't miss it

We ended our last night in NOLA at a favorite bar of ours, Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop for some voodoo drinks (god, we’re such tourists!).

Final voodoo drink at Lafittes

-jess

]]>https://ohmnomnom.wordpress.com/2011/05/19/nola-day-4-all-good-things/feed/0cityinwhich143tsk tsk!crustacean gifphil & crabhttp___makeagif.com_media_5-19-2011_Hj5pitlocal brewsbbq shrimpshrimp close uphuge ass beersLafittesNOLA Day 3https://ohmnomnom.wordpress.com/2011/02/03/nola-day-3/
https://ohmnomnom.wordpress.com/2011/02/03/nola-day-3/#commentsFri, 04 Feb 2011 04:12:31 +0000http://ohmnomnom.wordpress.com/?p=257]]>Today started slow but we still did a lot. I didn’t want to wake up and still reeked of booze from the night before. But I did eventually get up and we were lucky enough to borrow some bikes from Carl.

Bikes

We biked over to the Brad Pitt Projects, which is where one of the major levee breaks occurred during/after hurricane Katrina. The area there was basically a shanty town (well no probably not quite that bad) but it was also next to the levee so when it broke everything was decimated. It was pretty crazy how the whole area was just completely leveled – only the foundations of houses remained. Apparently Brad Pitt threw a bunch of money towards getting a lot of houses rebuilt in a new fashioned way with solar panels and other conscious design elements. The houses looked cool/interesting but still kind of like trailer home shanties. We found the new levee and walked up to it. Hopefully it will withstand the next (inevitable) large hurricane.

Near the Levee

New Eco-Houses

We then went to Napoleon restaurant (or something like that). It was not especially impressive but not bad and also kind of fancy. We got gumbo, jambalaya, warm muffuleta and boudin, which is a type of cajun style sausage.

Boudin at Napoleon House

Muffalata & Jambalaya at Napoleon House

We walked around the French quarter for a while, exploring and such. Eventually we found a bakery/coffee shop we had seen before and we went in there for some cafes au lait and a chocolate filled croissant thing. They were satisfying and tasty. We then found a gelateria with Isle of Man flags and got more gelato than we planned on. It was also very tasty but the weather had turned chilly and the gelato made us even chillier. We went home for coats and naps.

Chocolate-Filled Pastry at Antoine's Annex

But then we realized we didn’t have time for naps because today was the 12th night which meant that there was going to be a Joan of Arc parade at 6pm, so we went out to see that. On the way we drank a Four Loko which was absolutely disgusting. We did not catch the parade. Also before all this happened we got a cigar from an old Israeli man who was nice to us and had a smoke shop. We explored some more, spent some time at Lafitte’s Blacksmith Bar and eventually made our way back to Frenchmen Street which we later decided is our favorite place in this whole city.

Linnzi Zaorski at a Jazz/Swing Club

The Famous Snug Harbor Jazz Club

Oh and on the way to Frenchmen we stopped by French Market Restaurant because I had a hankerin for some crab and we ate a good amount of crab and it was surprisingly spicy. Eating crab is fun but also kind of morbid and there actually isn’t that much meat in there considering the effort and price. Later I peed with the spice still on my hands and that was a regretful experience.

Spicy Blue Crabs

Back when we had just missed the parade we went to Felix’s for some raw oysters in a half shell. Those were pretty good and the place has their own sauce for oysters which includes white horseradish, some sort of hot sauce and ketchup. We loaded it up with horseradish, which tasted like wasabi. We devoured a whole dozen oysters there.

Oysters at Felix's

All day our beer of choice was pretty much Abita Amber, which comes from local Abita Springs.

We ended our night hopping between jazz clubs – 3 Muses, Snug Harbor, Spotted Cat and another one. All were good but we like Spotted Cat the most. Snug Harbor had a bunch of singers but also a jazzist who apparently plays with the Rolling Stones. At Spotted Cat there were crazy good swing dancers of who we could not get enough. I made many videos throughout the night, trying to capture all the good music and dancing.

Dancing at the Spotted Cat

When we left the jazz/swing clubs there was a band playing in the street and people crowded around and danced and it was really good. Also a bit earlier I saw Holly’s Tamales and got a red chili beef tamale from her. She also had jambalaya tamales, cream cheese & strawberry tamales and a few other delicious sounding types. The one I got was indeed tasty.

Eventually we went home because I was really really tired and Jess continued to croon over how good the swing dancers were. I decided that Frenchmen Street was a good reason to come back to New Orleans someday, although the good swing dancers will probably not be there again.

-alex

]]>https://ohmnomnom.wordpress.com/2011/02/03/nola-day-3/feed/1cityinwhich143BikesNear the LeveeNew Eco-HousesBoudin at Napoleon HouseMuffalata & Jambalaya at Napoleon HouseChocolate-Filled Pastry at Antoine's AnnexLinnzi Zaorski at a Jazz/Swing ClubThe Famous Snug Harbor Jazz ClubSpicy Blue CrabsOysters at Felix'sDancing at the Spotted CatNOLA Day 2: The Diamond Jim Experiencehttps://ohmnomnom.wordpress.com/2011/02/03/nola-day-2-the-diamond-jim-experience/
https://ohmnomnom.wordpress.com/2011/02/03/nola-day-2-the-diamond-jim-experience/#respondFri, 04 Feb 2011 03:45:35 +0000http://ohmnomnom.wordpress.com/?p=255]]>Well I don’t know who Diamond Jim was (yet) but I sure can recount the tales of today:

It rained hard in the morning but that didn’t stop us and our large multicolored umbrella. We went to some vodoo shop and got our first daquiri type drinks – the Hand Grenade and the Horny Gator, which came with a tiny gator we called Phil. We decided to take Phil everywhere and put him in all our picutres.

Phil!

Well long story short we got po’ boys at Parasol (deliciouss! and beer spilled on me. get the roast beef!) and we went to Cochon for pork things and also before that we went to Drago’s for charbroiled oysters and fleur de lis shrimp. That was a good snack but the po’ boys were large and fiilling mmm mm!

Oysters at Drago's Seafood Restaurant

Fleur de Lis Shrimp

Roast Beef Po' Boy at Parasol

Cochon

Later we checked out Harrah’s Casino and the Blacksmith bar which had a piano player who was pretty good. There we met a gay couple and an Alabama girl who was 28 and very friendly. We then went on to Frenchmen St where we visited DBA NOLA for some jazz and local beers (NOLA Irish Channel Stout). Eventually we made it back home from all our adventures.

Lafitte's Blacksmith Bar

-alex

]]>https://ohmnomnom.wordpress.com/2011/02/03/nola-day-2-the-diamond-jim-experience/feed/0cityinwhich143Phil!Oysters at Drago's Seafood RestaurantFleur de Lis ShrimpRoast Beef Po' Boy at ParasolCochonLafitte's Blacksmith BarWho Dat?!? NOLA Day 1https://ohmnomnom.wordpress.com/2011/02/03/who-dat-nola-day-1/
https://ohmnomnom.wordpress.com/2011/02/03/who-dat-nola-day-1/#respondFri, 04 Feb 2011 03:33:34 +0000http://ohmnomnom.wordpress.com/?p=252]]>Today was our first day in New Orleans. I was pretty exhausted from the travels all day, even though we napped and had coffee mid-day, but the 4 hours of sleep and the stress of almost being late for our flight really wore on me I guess. Not so much the stress, but just the lack of sleep.

Burgundy B&B

Our B&B room is peaceful and Jess really likes the house. She says it’s cute, though really it’s just a house with the rooms rented out. Oh well, maybe I just don’t get the whole B&B thing. Maybe tomorrow’s breakfast will win me over.

We spent the day exploring the French Quarter and visiting as many places as we could from “The List,” which is a list of places Jess had researched and decided were representative of the New Orleans experience. We found out that we weren’t the only ones trying to check out all the hot spots – there were crazy lines for all the places we wanted to visit. The fact that the Sugar Bowl was happening today didn’t help. There were lots of people from Texas, Arkansas, Ohio and probably other surrounding states in town to see the game and try out the local eateries. And let’s be honest – we’re mostly here for the eateries.

Cafe Du Monde

Well, long story short, we went to Coop’s for jambalaya and gumbo, Central Grocery for muffalatas, Cafe du Monde for Beniets and coffee (preceeded by coffee at a local joint by our B&B, of which I forgot the name), Acme Oysters for both fresh and chargrilled oysters, Old Absinthe House for, what else, some Grand Absinthe (and football), some jazz club on Bourbon street that we don’t remember the name of but we really just went in there to use the bathroom and stayed for the good jazz (and the 1 drink each minimum) and finally, the Spotted Cat Music Cafe for some good jazz/swing music and some awesome swing dancers of whom we are now very jealous.

Absinthe

Not too bad for a first day. We were able to avoid the majority of the lines while most people were watching the game, which was quite a win for us. And we have resolved to try to learn swing dancing because it’s just so damn awesome.

Acme Oyster House

Tomorrow we plan on riding the streetcars, getting some more fresh seafood and dining at a place called Cochon. Should be good.

Oh and we also found a place that sells Four Loko, possibly the last batch of that forbidden drink in the whole country. Naturally we bought a couple. For science =]

Four Loko

All in a day, with more good days to come.

-alex

]]>https://ohmnomnom.wordpress.com/2011/02/03/who-dat-nola-day-1/feed/0cityinwhich143Burgundy B&BCafe Du MondeAbsintheAcme Oyster HouseFour LokoMKhttps://ohmnomnom.wordpress.com/2010/12/28/mk/
https://ohmnomnom.wordpress.com/2010/12/28/mk/#commentsWed, 29 Dec 2010 03:33:58 +0000http://ohmnomnom.wordpress.com/?p=229]]>Hello again, internet! its been awhile, hasn’t it? Sadly enough, our recent food adventures have been… well pretty much non-existent, due to school and work and all sorts of mundanities. Lately, we’ve been living off of the frozen section at good old trader joe’s and hummus. Lots and lots of hummus. Oh, and there was that one lunch at loyola’s library where i discovered that they load up their buffalo chicken sandwiches with croutons (a story for another time…)

But all of our humdrum food woes ended this past weekend at MK… and so ends our 7 month-long hiatus over here at ohm nom nom! (yay)

birthday dinner menu for meee!

So, this birthday dinner was all planned out by mr. fooz, as evidenced by the personalized menus that we were presented with. He chose MK, a restaurant in river north that is super cozy and intimate… it felt like a loft converted into a restaurant and was very inviting. but also swanky and elegant!

We started off our dinner with a chilean blended wine that i picked out from the pages and pages of wine choices they had. Honestly, i know very little about wines, so i had to consult with MK’s very own wine sommelier before making a choice. Trust me, it was all VERY grown up.

our wine, decanted.

So, MK’s modus operandi is to source seasonal produce and prepare them in a classic and minimalistic way. We both got the early winter delights tasting menu, a 4 course adventure based on fresh ingredients… yum!

Our first course was a persimmon prosciutto cold plate, a play on the traditional prosciutto-melon combo. It was really nice, the prosciutto was crispy and went well with the sweet persimmon. the greens also added a nice spicy note and all three together made for a really nice bite!

persimmon, prosciutto, watercress

Next was the fish course, which was the cod with peppers and beans in an AMAZING buttery sauce. I mean, it was literally in a pool of butter… which may sound very unhealthy and kinda gross, but the herbs and the peppers really made it seem light and sweet. Perfect for the perfectly cooked fish.

cod with canelli beans, escarole piquillo peppers and rosemary

Then came our meat dish, a charcoal grilled kobe skirt steak with kale. THIS WAS SOOOO GOOD. Mmm. Just awesome tender meat with a really nice smokiness. I guess those massages and beer diets do the cattle good. Oh, and we also got TRUFFLE FRIES that came out with the kobe beef. TRUFFLE FRIES! gah. Fries dipped in truffle mayo is the only way to eat fries. I’m spoiled now and will not eat them any other way (says the bourgeois pig: let them eat truffle!)

kobe steak with flowering kale, potato puree, bordelaise sauce

TRUFFLE FRIES

Lastly, the dessert. A spiced parsnip cake with maple ice cream and sherry soaked currants. A really nice home-y cake…. and made from parsnips! Pretty cool. And our waiter gave us a couple of glasses of a Moscato D’Asti to go with it – which is something we’ll have to pick up at binny’s sometime! It was almost like a honey wine but a lot more fruity! We both concurred on the fruity descriptor.

Maple & Parsnip dessert

It was a pretty nice ending to the meal… everything on the menu went so well with the winter theme and was just so tasty and satisfying. We ended the meal with a nice walk home through empty streets and snow. All this made for one very happy birthday night.

-jess

]]>https://ohmnomnom.wordpress.com/2010/12/28/mk/feed/1cityinwhich143MK birthday menuwine, chilepersimmon029032030033034Bigass Burgers & Beer at Old Town Pubhttps://ohmnomnom.wordpress.com/2010/05/24/bigass-burgers-beer-at-old-town-pub/
https://ohmnomnom.wordpress.com/2010/05/24/bigass-burgers-beer-at-old-town-pub/#commentsTue, 25 May 2010 01:37:23 +0000http://ohmnomnom.wordpress.com/?p=212]]>When the weather is nice, we gravitate toward beer gardens. Old Town is a good area for them, though they get quite crowded and it can be hard to find a good place. By the time we found this one, I had become very hungry and a bigass burger was in order. Oh and beer.

Old Town Pub

Now, we were mostly looking for a good place to sit down, relax and have a beer. There are a lot of beer places around here but most of them are filled with 30-something douchebags so that pretty much rules out the Irish pubs and the sports bars. The other places are pretty fancy and since all we were looking for was a place to sit outside and have a beer, those places didn’t really fit either. I did mention that I had gotten hungry. But we weren’t looking for an upscale dining experience – just some beer and maybe a sandwich.

Ice Cold Drafts

We were pleased to find a good assortment of quality beers on the menu and took this as an opportunity to sample some new ones and broaden our hoppy horizons. The beer list was comprised mostly of microbrews with their geographical locations and alcohol content also listed.

Abita Ale Turbodog

My choice was Turbodog. I think I may have had it once before, but I felt like giving it another try. It was fairly tasty, though not spectacular. But beers rarely are. In any case, it was pleasant on a warm evening and I’d definitely get it again sometime.

Bell's Third Coast & Robert the Bruce

We also sampled Robert the Bruce from Three Floyds Brewery in Indiana and Third Coast from Bell’s in Michigan. Robert the Bruce is a full bodied Scottish-style ale with a well rounded malty profile of roasted and caramel notes. At 6.5% ABV, it’s a quality beer but something about the taste wasn’t quite what I was looking for. Still, I later bought a bottle to give it another try at home. Bell’s Third Coast was the biggest surprise of the evening. This is an American blonde ale with a slightly fruity, almost lemony taste. The ABV was listed as a whopping 10% but I later found out that it’s actually 4.8%, which is much more believable. The coolest thing about this beer was that the bubbles inside weren’t moving. Usually a carbonate beverage has bubbles that float up to the surface, but these were actually suspended in the beer, not moving at all. It was an interesting sight, though we both agreed that the taste wasn’t anything special.

Oh yeah, I promised you a bigass burger didn’t I?

Wells St. Burger

BAM! How’s that? This was called the Wells Street Burger and it came with thick strips of bacon, as you can see. It might not look especially large here but trust me, it was quite a mouthful.

Bigass Burger Basket

The burger came in a basket with pickles, tomato, lettuce, jalapenos and coleslaw. It was more than enough for me but I made sure to finish off every last bite. Quite delicious, if you like that sort of thing, but also quite excessive. Oh well.

All in all, the food was pretty satisfying and the beer selection was good. Everything was a bit pricey at about $6-10 per beer and around $10 for the burger. I’m sure I’ll visit Old Town Pub again, but I’ll definitely hesitate before paying $10 for a $2 beer again.